Committee on Publication Ethics

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The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is a registered charity in the UK concerned with the integrity of publications in science, particularly related to biomedicine. It was established in 1997 and meets in Londonbut its over 3000 members are from all continents. They include editors of all journals published by Reed Elsevier, the largest medical journal publisher in the world and of those published by the BMJ Publishing Group.

COPE provides a forum for publishers and editors of scientific journals to discuss issues relating to the integrity of their work. Examples include conflicts of interest, falsification and fabrication of data, plagiarism, unethical experimentation, inadequate subject consent, and authorship disputes.

It meets quarterly to discuss cases brought to it by members and posts its advice on how to handle the matter on its website. It also publishes a code of conduct for editors who are members of the organisation and will investigate complaints against them. It provides, freely, flowcharts on how to handle commoner publication misconduct problems. These have been widely adopted by publishers, for example Wiley-Blackwell.

COPE also funds research on issues relating to publication isconduct, will be publishing a newsletter and its officers lecture widely on the subject, its chairman sitting on the board of the UK Panel for Research Integrity. It also has links with the Council of Science Editors in the US, its chairman being a director of that body.

[1] Official website]